Does your search and rescue team allow you to carry?

This is a discussion on Does your search and rescue team allow you to carry? within the Concealed Carry Issues & Discussions forums, part of the Defensive Carry Discussions category; I live in Washington State. For quite a while allot of the Search and Rescue Volunteers carried for self defense especially since allot of our ...

Does your search and rescue team allow you to carry?

I live in Washington State. For quite a while allot of the Search and Rescue Volunteers carried for self defense especially since allot of our work is in some of forest areas of our state. The Rule was as long as you had your CPL you could carry. Basically due to politics with in the Sheriffs department about 2 years ago a rule was put into place that stated that. SAR Volunteers could no longer carry.

With that the Sheriff is changing and this offers a chance to change and put in place a good policy regarding our right to carry.

Anyone out there apart of a team that allows you to carry. What is the policy?? I'm looking for specifics that I can deliver to the Sheriff's office.. Regarding other teams that have a carry policy.

Hey, I live in WA as well and am part of the SO WASR and General Rescue team. We are not allowed to carry on duty. I wish I could be of help to you! Let us know what you find out, because I'd be interested for my county.

"A free people ought not only to be armed and disciplined, but they should have sufficient arms and ammunition to maintain a status of independence from any who might attempt to abuse them, which would include their own government." - George Washington

Hey, I live in WA as well and am part of the SO WASR and General Rescue team. We are not allowed to carry on duty. I wish I could be of help to you! Let us know what you find out, because I'd be interested for my county.

what "need" needs to be justafied?
There are LEOs patrolling the streets already, it has no bearing on ones right to carry.

Did you have to state a need for your permit?
Do you have to state a need for voicing your opnion?

I once had an employer that did not see a need for me to have my rights durring working hours.
I now live in AZ and not WA. and working for another electronics firm where my rights are allowed.
Voting is not limited to November only.

"I cannot undertake to lay my finger on that article of the Constitution, which granted a right to Congress of expending, on objects of benevolence, the money of their constituents." -1792, James Madison
There are always too many Democratic, Republican and never enough U.S. congressmen.

One of the guys in my C.E.R.T. class asked what the county's policy was on carrying during an activation. The deputy said since open carry is prohibited in Texas no one is ever going to know unless you use it. A very diplomatic answer in that he never said there was a policy permiting it or prohibiting it, but his tone made it quite clear that he had absolutely no problem with us carrying.

Well keep I mind that allot of our searches are not grid searches like you see on Tv were we are all standing in a line waking in a field.. Most of our searches are in the middle of the night with one or two guys driving Down a forest road alone while the LEO in charge is at basecamp. If every search was a grid search with a Leo at my side I wouldn't feel the need to carry. 9 out of 10'times on a search I'm alone in my vehicle.

My SAR team was through CAP, and the rules stated that noone was allowed to carry around any CAP activity, however I was told what they don't know about can't hurt me and as long as I wasn't breaking any state laws just policy, i was fine

[QUOTE=AZ Husker;1797210]Not to be a wise guy, I'd like to see you folks be able to carry, but how are you going to justify the need when there is already a LEO presence in most circumstances?[/QUOTE]
I don't know how things work there, but it's very seldom that we have a LEO actually assigned to a search team. In most cases they stay at the command post. Of the three times that we have had LEO assigned to our search teams twice they went back to the command post on their own. Only once was the officer able to keep up with the search team. In most cases LEO are notoriously ill equipped to perform SAR operations.

I see the issue as a liability problem. If your SAR team is responding under the Sheriffs name and liability / workers comp. then you will need to meet or exceed the firearms training that his deputies have. I would offer to put all the SAR member through the LEO firearms training and the same qualification course. I would expect the qualifications to be on the same schedule as his Deputies.

My SAR team is based in IL so I can't help you on written policies. Maybe one day!

Before I moved when I lived in idaho I was member of SAR....I remember on one call out we were looking for a Guy that had gotten lost in the mountains...we found out that this Guy was exmilitary....bipolar....was fighting with his girlfriend....and to top it off he had just left his drug dealers house after blowing his entire paycheck there......it was an all night search in the dead of winter.....yep we had the sherriffs department there but they all staying warm back at basecamp in the motorhome....there is no way they were gonna get cold that's why they had us there....I will tell you that almost everyone on my team was armed...it was kind of a don't ask don't tell kind of thing....everyone knew but it was unspoken....

"A free people ought not only to be armed and disciplined, but they should have sufficient arms and ammunition to maintain a status of independence from any who might attempt to abuse them, which would include their own government." - George Washington

"A free people ought not only to be armed and disciplined, but they should have sufficient arms and ammunition to maintain a status of independence from any who might attempt to abuse them, which would include their own government." - George Washington